On Tuesday Chinese Premier Li Keqiang kicked off the nine-day 2014 session of the National People's Congress by stressing the importance of achieving both economic growth and structural reform.

Symbolically he mentioned "reform" 77 times in his nearly two-hour long speech before the NPC meeting, the first under the leadership of President Xi Jinping. But the task the Chinese leadership must tackle is enormous.

To name a few, the problems it must solve include a balance between economic growth and the quality of life, excess in production capacities, bursting of housing bubbles, swelling of local debts, corruption, air pollution and minority issues.